1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a juicer module, and more particularly, to a juicer module in which a screw connected to a driving shaft of a driving device is used to squeeze and/or mill vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, etc., thereby producing juices, vegetable juices or other juice-type foods.
2. Description of the Related Art
A juicer is a device for processing vegetables, fruits, etc. to produce fluid-typed or juice-typed foods. Various types of juicers which may be conveniently used for domestic or commercial applications have been known. Most universal juicers adopted a scheme in which a material is thrown into a material input and then milled by using a high-speed rotary blade. However, this type of juicer has typically been restricted to crushing tough materials such as green vegetables composed of stems or leaves to produce vegetable juices.
Accordingly, a juicer has been conventionally developed to squeeze vegetables and fruits between a rotary screw and a net drum, thereby producing juices or extracts (e.g., vegetable juices). In such a juicer, the screw and the net drum are arranged within an open top juicer container, and a lid in which a material input is formed is coupled with an upper portion of the juicer container. A shaft socket is formed in a lower portion of the lid, and a shaft which is inserted into the shaft socket in a rotatable manner is installed onto an upper end of the screw. The material input is configured to be small-sized in the lid without being overlapped with the shaft socket. The juicer container is mounted on a main body in which a driving device is embedded, and the screw is connected to a driving shaft of the driving device positioned outside the juicer module so that the screw may be rotated.
In the conventional juicer, only protruded spiral portions formed on a side surface of the screw take part in material processing schemes such as juice-squeezing and/or milling together with a juice-squeezing or milling net drum. Accordingly, in order that the material thrown through the material input may reach the spiral portions formed on the side surface of the screw, a considerable portion of the upper end of the screw has been removed.
Further, in the conventional juicer, water or moisture may be permeated through a location at which the driving shaft of the main body and a rotary shaft of the screw are connected with each other. As such, a cylindrical protrusion for waterproofing is typically formed around a central bottom portion of the juicer container which is connected to the driving shaft, and a seal is installed on an upper portion of the cylindrical protrusion. Further, a cylindrical depression is typically formed around the rotary shaft positioned on a lower portion of the screw so that the cylindrical protrusion is inserted into the cylindrical depression.
However, this type of conventional juicer has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to clean the surrounding of the cylindrical protrusion on the central bottom portion of the juicer container and the internal portion of the cylindrical depression on the lower portion of the screw. Since the juicer is a food processing device requiring extreme cleanness, this disadvantage is very critical. Further, in order to assemble the screw and the juicer container with each other, the protrusion on the central bottom portion of the juicer container must be smoothly inserted into the depression on the lower portion of the screw. For this, the dimension of the cylindrical depression is larger than that of the cylindrical protrusion. Still further, since the rotary shaft of the screw must be supported by a soft seal installed on the upper portion of the protrusion, the screw is maintained in a state in which the screw is fluctuated in a lateral direction when the screw is assembled to the bottom of the juicer container. Although the fluctuation of the screw may be prevented by inserting the shaft formed on the upper portion of the screw into the shaft socket formed in the lid according to the most popular scheme in the food processing field, there is another disadvantage in that the shaft socket formed in the lid may be broken under the unstable assembling condition of the screw. Further, it is very inconvenient to clean the shaft socket formed on the lid, and this is deemed to be a disadvantage for such a food processing device requiring sanitation.